


Stay

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 11:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17222912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Sometimes Itey wishes he could go back to Italy.





	Stay

The day that Itey wandered into the lodging house at four in the morning and shoved a wrinkled advertisement in Snitch’s face, was the day that Snitch learned how quickly a heart could stop and then start beating again. The advertisement was for those who wished to book passage on a ship to Europe, and it promised affordable tickets in every price range. The dark shadows under Itey’s eyes were visible even in the early morning darkness, and for once Snitch couldn’t even find the words to scold him for up and disappearing without a word, and leaving him to sit up an entire night worrying what had happened. All that Snitch could think, looking into Itey’s unsmiling face, was that this was the beginning of the end. Italy was going to swallow Itey up all over again, and in ten years time, Snitch would be sitting somewhere dismal and lonely, probably in a rocking chair, regretting the time he’d let his only friend, the mortal person he cared the most about in the world, get away.

Itey swallowed. Snitch could see his throat moving.

“I’ll stay,” he said horsely. He crumpled up the paper, and let it fall to the ground.

Snitch was so relieved that he laughed. A shudder went up through Itey at that, but he didn’t say anything. He turned his face from Snitch, and sat at the edge of the bed, deeply interested in the task of methodically unlacing and removing his shoes. That wouldn’t do. Snitch hated to see Itey unhappy. He put both his hands on Itey’s shoulders.

“You made the right decision, pal,” he said, as gently as he could. “And I’ll stick by you as long as you’re here.”

Itey didn’t exactly smile, but he let out a breath, and something about his tight, forced frown loosened. He put his hand over Snitch’s for a moment, and then lay down on his side of the bed.

Around them, the rest of the lodging house was quiet. In retrospect, Snitch supposed that he should have noticed that it was too quiet, as a few of the lodgers, namely Dutchy and Racetrack, had been too busy eavesdropping to snore.

Snitch discovered this after coming in from selling the next day, to find Itey sat on the floor in the corner of the lodging house, with Race on one side of him, and Dutchy on the other. There were some playing cards spread out in front of them, but nobody seemed to be paying them much mind.

“I think it’s something happens to all us immigrant types,” Race was saying. “You start out with one foot in one country, and one foot in another, ‘till one day it hits you that you ain’t going back.”

“It’s the boats that’s the real problem. Not much sense in going back and forth, when going forth half kills you the first time, right? Here ain’t half bad. Feels like home.” Dutchy smiled. Snitch wished that Itey could feel like Dutchy did, but more than that, he wished he’d sat with him the night before, and said the kind of things that Race and Dutchy were saying now. He wanted to be the sort of person who could effortlessly show that he cared and understood, but the problem was that folks often didn’t like his understanding of things. Itey, for example, didn’t take kindly to being told that Italy was a pagan wasteland full of vagrants and Catholics.

“If I can go back for an hour…” Itey started to say, but Racetrack cut him off.

“You’d make a fortune as a magician.”

“Or an inventor,” Dutchy added.

Snitch took a step forward, then another one back. He stopped. That’s when Itey caught his eye, and patted the floor next to him. Snitch squared his shoulders, and made his decision. He hated sitting on the floor, and he hated cards, but he liked Itey, and he wanted to be there for him.

“Guess you’d wanna hug your mama,” Snitch said. “And tell her about everything you’ve done over here.”

That was all it took to make Itey’s smile falter. He passed his hand in front of his eyes, and Snitch tried not to panic, especially when Racetrack stood up. Snitch only wanted to say something nice to make Itey happy, like the other two had.

“Whelp,” Racetrack said, dusting himself off. “Guess my work here is done. I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it.”

“You know where to find me if you need me,” Dutchy added, before Snitch could so much as protest that he and Itey weren’t lovebirds.

Snitch looked from one empty place to another, and then to Itey.

“Gosh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to…”.

“No need for sorry,” Itey said. He sounded more composed than Snitch had expected him to. “You’re right. That’s what I want to do. If I have an hour. But I don’t, and I’m here, together with you.”


End file.
